Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hydrogel object and a method of manufacturing the hydrogel object.
Description of the Related Art
Internal organ models manufactured of silicone, urethane elastomer, styrene elastomer, etc. have been developed for procedures for surgical operations.
For a patient to recover from a surgical operation and improve quality of life (QOL), it is demanded for surgeons and assistants thereto to improve their procedure levels to a certain degree. For this reason, internal organ models closer to real human internal organs are required having textures and usability of surgical devices such as an ultrasonic knife and an electrosurgical knife. However, models widely used currently have textures, usability and internal structures far from real internal organs.
Therefore, laboratory animal study using miniature pigs referred to as wet lab is provided as chances for staff who need surgical training using internal organs closer to real. However, human internal organs are different from those of miniature pigs of wet lab in some ways. In addition, it is difficult to provide miniature pigs having appropriate malady for practice. Furthermore, it is extremely expensive to provide an environment for growing miniature pigs fresh while maintaining and controlling their conditions. Therefore, in reality, wet labs for practice are not frequently held.
As a consequence, internal organs true to life are most wanted to improve procedures of surgeons regarding textures and bites of knives in addition to forms of the internal organ.
If such an internal organ model true to life of a patient is prepared before his operation, staff in charge of the patient are able to actually cut or suture the model as a simulation when making a plan of a surgical operation. This contributes to improvement on the chance of success for difficult operations such as enucleation of a tumor.
In addition, materials containing polyvinyl alcohol as the main component are proposed for an internal organ model to reproduce the texture of a real internal organ.
In addition, a hydrogel containing water in a three-dimensional network structure is known. Since this gel has relatively good mechanical properties, it is expected to be applicable to a soft material and an additive manufacturing object including an internal organ model.